Part 2 (2/2)
”Can't use street-cars!” she cried. ”What will Harry do?”
”Oh, that rule doesn't apply to men,” returned Murray calmly, ”for men don't get off the cars backward and all that sort of thing. Street-cars are considered, in our business, a danger only for women.”
”Well, it's a hateful, insulting, unfair business!” she cried, rising in her indignation. ”I wouldn't let such a contemptible lot of people insure me for anything in the world.”
”But please don't blame me,” urged Murray insinuatingly. ”I want to do the best I can for you.”
”Oh, I don't blame you,” she returned magnanimously.
”I admit that it sounds unfair,” Murray persisted, ”but there was a time when we wouldn't take risks on women at all, so, even with the restrictions, it's quite a concession.”
”Oh, very likely, very likely,” she admitted, ”but I have too much pride to accept any such humiliating conditions. Harry can do as he pleases,”
with dignity, ”but nothing could induce me to be insured now. I'm going home.”
Harry took her to a cab, and then returned to Murray's office.
”Well, it's settled,” said Murray, with a sigh of relief.
”Yes, it's settled,” returned Beckford, ”but I don't feel just comfortable about it.”
”She sort of bowled me over the first thing,” commented Murray. ”I haven't quite recovered yet. But it's her welfare that we're considering. Better put in your application and take the examination before there are any more complications.”
”Perhaps that's wise,” admitted Beckford gloomily, for he was not at all at ease about the matter. She had said he could do as he pleased, but there had been something in her tone that was disquieting; she might think there was disloyalty in his patronage of a company that had so offended her. And this was the first cloud that had appeared in the matrimonial sky; in all else there had been mutual concession and perfect agreement.
He was thinking of this when he went home-and found her in tears.
”I know what's the matter,” she wailed. ”I didn't think of it at first, but I did afterward, and I've been crying ever since. I have heart trouble; that's why he didn't want to give me a policy.”
”Nonsense!” he protested vigorously.
”Oh, I know it! I know it!” she cried. ”He didn't want to tell me, so he put in all that about street-cars and gasoline. But it's heart trouble or consumption! Those insurance men are so quick to see things that no one else notices. Why, I could see that he was worried the very first thing!”
Beckford got on his knees beside the bed on which she was lying and tried to comfort her, but she was inconsolable. He insisted that she was the strongest and healthiest woman of her size in the world; that he knew it; that Murray himself had commented on it later; that the company physician, who happened to be in the outer office as they pa.s.sed through, had spoken of it; that even the clerks were impressed; but he failed to shake her conviction that she had some fatal, and hitherto unsuspected, malady. Finally, a.s.suring her that he would have that matter settled in thirty minutes, he rushed to the nearest cab-stand and gave the driver double fare to run his horse all the way to Murray's house.
Murray was just sitting down to dinner, but Beckford insisted that he should return with him immediately.
”You've got to straighten this matter out!” he told him excitedly.
”You've got to give her all the insurance she wants without any restrictions! Make it fifty thousand dollars if she wants it! I'll pay the premiums, if we have to starve!”
”But I can't give her a policy to-night!” protested Murray.
”You can tell her about it to-night, can't you?” demanded Beckford. ”And you can take her application to-night, can't you? Why, man, she has convinced herself that she's going to die in a week! We can settle the details later, but we've got to do something to-night.”
”Oh, well, I'll come immediately after dinner,” said Murray.
”You come now!” cried Beckford. ”If you talk dinner to me, I'll brain you! Insurance has made a wreck of me already.”
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